Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has apologized for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and admitted to having two affairs with Russian women while married to his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.
In a statement directed to employees at the Gates Foundation, Gates revealed he flew on private planes with Epstein and spent time with him in the United States and abroad over several years. He emphasized that he did not participate in any criminal activity or engage with victims of Epstein’s crimes.
“I did nothing illicit,” Gates said during a town hall meeting for foundation staff. “I saw nothing illicit. To be clear, I never spent any time with the victims, the women around him.”
Gates first met Epstein in 2011, after the financier’s Florida conviction for procuring children for prostitution. He continued to socialize with Epstein despite concerns raised by his then-wife.
The billionaire has long denied wrongdoing related to Epstein but recently admitted to the affairs during a period when Melinda French Gates filed for divorce in 2021, ending their 27-year marriage.
“I did have affairs,” Gates told staff. “One with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist I met through business activities.”
Additionally, an engineer employed by the Gates Foundation was arrested at the couple’s Seattle home in 2014 for possessing thousands of images of child sexual abuse material. The individual, Rick Allen Jones, admitted to collecting such content online over a decade.
